2. Normal passive Ditransitive verbs
Reporting verbs
Prepositional
or phrasal verbs
Summing-up Exercises Links
Introduction
restrictions Causative Have/Get
3.
4. “Voice” is linked to the verb because it
is considered one of the features
that define it, together with “tense”,
“person”, “aspect” or “mood”.
Voice tells us about the agent and
the patient of the verb action and it
involves a contrast between “Active” and
“Passive”.
In an active sentence, the subject
realises the verb action whereas in a
passive sentence, the subject
receives the verb action.
6. I have caught
him in the
chimney, Sarge.
He has been
caught in the
chimney, Sarge.
WHICH CHANGES HAVE
TAKEN PLACE FROM
ACTIVE TO PASSIVE
7. The young policeman has caught Father Christmas
Active
Passive Father Christmas has been caught by the young policeman
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
SUBJECT
BE (same
tense as
Main Verb)
Participle
(of Main
Verb)
(by +
AGENT)
This is how we transform an active sentence into a passive one
1. The OBJECT of the active sentence becomes the new SUBJECT
2. Now we put the verb BE in the same tense as the verb in the active
This is very important and most mistakes are made in this process
Then, we write the Past Participle form of the Main Verb
BE CAREFUL with the irregular verbs !! Study and learn the list
3. Finally, the active subject may become the agent in the passive
In English we use the preposition “by” to introduce the agent
8. When we do not know the identity of the agent of the action.
When it is not important to mention the agent of the action.
When we want to avoid mentioning the agent of the action.
(In these three cases, the agent complement is omitted)
When we want to put emphasis on the agent of the action by means of the“end-focus” theory.
In English we use the passive voice for several reasons, all of them important.
Butfor whatever reason,the passive voiceis a veryusefullinguisticinstrument
and we use it inEnglishmuchmoreoftenthanwe do in Spanish.Thisis
probablythe most important difference.
9.
10. Normal Passives follow the three general steps to form
passive sentences:
1. OBJECT PASSIVE SUBJECT
2. VERB BE+PARTICIPLE
3. SUBJECT AGENT COMPLEMENT
11. To transform an active sentence into a passive one, it is commonly believed
that the main verb in active should be transitive, i.e., there should be a Direct
Object in the sentence. However, the English language proves that a passive
sentence can also be created from the Indirect Object in the active sentence.
Therefore, this leads us to say that to form a passive sentence we need to have
an Object in the active counterpart.
Whatever the object, we must be very careful when selecting it and turning it
into a passive subject, bearing in mind that the syntactic function of subject in
English is realised by a noun phrase, not by a prepositional phrase.
“The burglars had cut an enormous hole in the steel door.”
“In the steel door had been cut by the burglars an enormous hole”
“An enormous hole had been cut by the burglars in the steel door.”
In addition to this, a subject can never be an object pronoun. Therefore, in those
cases where the indirect object is realised by an object pronoun, we must change
this into a subject pronoun in order to turn it into a passive subject.
“They saw him in Australia”
“He was seen in Australia”
1. OBJECT PASSIVE SUBJECT
12. 2. VERB BE+PARTICIPLE
CHANGESIN VERBTENSESARE…
ACTIVETENSES PASSIVETENSES
Present Simple - buy/buys Am/are/is bought
Present Continuous - is buying Is being bought
Past Simple - bought Was/were bought
Past Continuous - was buying Was/were being bought
Present Perfect Simple - have/has bought Have/has been bought
Past Perfect Simple - had bought Had been bought
Future Simple - will buy Will be bought
Simple Condicional - would buy Would be bought
Perfect Conditional - would have bought Would have been bought
Modals - must/should buy Must/should be bought
Infinitive - to buy To be bought
Gerund - buying Being buying
13. when the active subject is a
personal pronoun.
(i.e., I, You, He, She, It, We, You,
They)
“They paid the bill and then they left”
“The bill was paid and then they left”
3. SUBJECT AGENT COMPLEMENT
WHENIS THEAGENT
COMPLEMENTNOT
NECESSARY?
when the active subject is an
indefinite pronoun or a generic noun.
(i.e., some-, any-, no- & “people”) This is
called the impersonal passive.
“Someone kidnapped the girl while she was doing jogging”
“The girl was kidnapped while she was doing jogging”
“No one could see the thief when he ran away”
“The thief couldn’t be seen when he ran away”
“People must not leave bicycles in the hall”
“Bicycles must not be left in the hall”
But…
“Almost 400.000 people bought stamps from Forum Filatélico”
“Stamps from F. Filatélico were bought by almost 400.000 people”
when the active subject is
obvious. (i.e., normally professions
that can be understood from the
meaning of the verb action)
“The milkman delivers the milk every day”
“The milk is delivered by the milkman every day”
“The dustmen took the rubbish away this morning”
“ The rubbish was taken away by the dustmen this morning”
In these cases the passive voice is more often used than
the active voice.
20. Some verbs are considered ditransitive verbs because they
have two objects: a DIRECT OBJECT & an INDIRECT OBJECT.
Some of these verbs are:
Give Lend Order Hand
Send Ask Pay Grant
Show Tell Bring Allow
With these verbs, changes into passive can be done in two different
ways. This is called the double passive. One of these constructions
is more frequently used than the other.
Active The Ministry of Education granted them €2000
SUBJECT VERB I.O. D.O.
PASSIVE 1 PASSIVE 2
21. KEEP YOUR ON THIS:
The Indirect Object is always preceeded by the preposition TO (even if it
is not used in the active) because the passive construction requires it.
This type of transformation is less frequently done. And never is it used
with the verbs “ask”, “tell”, “order” and “allow”.
PASSIVE 1
D.O. PASSIVE SUBJECT
Active The Ministry of Education granted them €2000
SUBJECT VERB I.O. D.O.
Passive €2000 were granted to them by the Ministry of Education
SUBJ VERB AGENT COMPLEMENT
I.O.
22. PASSIVE 2
I.O. PASSIVE SUBJECT
Active
Passive
The Ministry of Education granted them €2000
SUBJECT VERB I.O. D.O.
They were granted €2000 by the Ministry of Education
SUBJ VERB I.O. AGENT COMPLEMENT
REMEMBER!!
INDIRECT OBJECT (object pronoun) – PASSIVE SUBJECT (subject pronoun
26. He was brought a wooden horse from Paris by his mother
A wooden horse from Paris was brought to him by his mother
27. A letter of complaint has just been sent to the company
The company has just been sent a letter of complaint
28.
29. This type of passive occurs when in the active we find a
construction like this:
*
* Reporting verbs are those used to report what someone says or has
said. Some of them fit into the group of verbs of thinking or opinion.
And they are verbs like the following ones:
Say Know Consider Estimate
Believe Assume Feel Report
Understand Claim Find Think
With this type of construction, changes into passive can be done in
two different ways.
Active IMPERSONAL SUBJECT
(They, people, everybody, etc.)
VERB
(reporting)
THAT-CLAUSE
PASSIVE 1 PASSIVE 2
30. PASSIVE 1
Active
IMPERSONAL SUBJECT
(They, people, everybody, etc.)
VERB
(reporting)
THAT-CLAUSE
Passive
Most people believe that she is very intelligent
It is believed that she is very intelligent
IMPERSONAL SUBJECT
“IT”
PASSIVE VERB THAT-CLAUSE
Everybody says he didn’t steal the money
It is said that he didn’t steal the money
KEEP YOUR ON THIS:
Notice how this passive construction is also an Impersonal Passive since it is
introduced by a so-called “preparatory IT” which is, in fact, an impersonal subject.
This type of passive would correspond to the Spanish “pasiva refleja” and would be
translated into “SE… (dice, cree, comenta…)”
31. Most people believe that she is very intelligent
PASSIVE 2
Active
IMPERSONAL SUBJECT
(They, people, everybody, etc.)
VERB
(reporting)
THAT-CLAUSE
Passive
SUBJECT
IN THAT-CLAUSE
PASSIVE VERB (NOT) TO INF/PERFECT INF
(of the Verb in That-clause)
Everybody says he didn’t steal the money
He is said not to have stolen the money
She is believed to be very intelligent
KEEP YOUR ON THIS:
This type of passive would also correspond to the Spanish “pasiva refleja” and would
be translated into “SE… (dice, cree, comenta…)”. Otherwise, it would sound
unnatural to translate it into Spanish as “Él es dicho no haber robado el dinero”
33. Mr. Burns is assumed to be a mean person
It is assumed that Mr. Burns is a mean person
34. Mary Shelley is claimed not to have written “Frankenstein”
It is claimed that Mary Shelley didn’t write “Frankenstein”
It is claimed that “Frankenstein” wasn’t written by Mary Shelley
“Frankenstein” is claimed not to have been written by Mary Shelley
35. He is considered to act as a rebel
It is considered that he acts as a rebel
36. Dolphins are thought to be extremely intelligent animals
It is thought that dolphins are extremely intelligent animals
37.
38. If we have a prepositional or phrasal verb in an active
sentence, we should follow the same steps as in the normal passive,
but bearing in mind that the preposition or the particle must be
retained in the passive construcion.
Active
SUBJECT PREPOSITIONAL OR PHRASAL VERB OBJECT
Passive
The public shouted at the PM during his speech
The PM was shouted at during his speech
SUBJECT
PASSIVE VERB PREPOSITION/ PARTICLE
(BY- AGENT)
45. Have Love Like
Lack Hold Resemble
Fit Suit Become
Agree with Look at Hurt
They have a nice house
He lacks confidence
The auditorium holds 500 people
That shirt doesn’t suit you
I like this place
They hurt each other
She looked at herself in the mirror
Some verbs which are transitive cannotbe madepassive. Some of them are:
46.
47.
48.
49. We use the structure…
1. …to describe services done for us by someone else.
For example, compare the sentences:
Last year I had new tiles put on the roof
Last year I put new tiles on the roof
2. … to describe misfortunes which happen to us, caused by an
unspecified person.
Peter had his car stolen
Karen had her leg broken playing football
Using GET instead of have means managing to do something.
It was difficult but we got the painting done in the end
HAVE/GET OBJECT PARTICIPLE
A worker came to my
house to put the tiles on
the roof
I climbed onto the roof
and put the tiles myself
54. It was rather messy but in the end we got the kitchen painted
55.
56. NORMAL
PASSIVE
Active Object --- Passive Subject
Active Verb --- BE + PARTICIPLE
Active Subject --- Agent Complement
BE in the same tense as Main Verb:
In present: am/is/are
In past: was/were
In prest cont: am/is/are being
In past cont: was/were being
In pres perf: have/has been
In past perf: had been
In future: will be …
DITRANSITIVE
VERBS
Active: S + V + IO + DO
Passive: DO(subject)+V(passive)+TO+IO+AC
IO(subject)+V(passive)+DO+AC
REPORTING
VERBS
Active: S(impersonal)+V(reporting)+THAT CLAUSE
Passive: IT+V(passive)+THAT CLAUSE
Subject(in That-clause)+V(passive)+(NOT) TO INF/PERFECT INF
CAUSATIVE
HAVE/GET
HAVE/GET + OBJECT + PARTICIPLE
services done for us by someone else
misfortunes which happen to us
GET: managing to do something
Agent Complement: NOT USED when: 1. pronoun, 2. indefinite, 3. obvious
Phrasalor prepositional verbs: the preposition or particle is retained in the passive
Restrictions: have, lack, hold, love, like, resemble, become, agree with, look at, hurt, fit..
Easy, isn’t it?
57.
58. 1. Turn into passive. (Normal, ditransitive, with reporting verbs, with
phrasal verbs, etc.)
1. Somebody will wake you at seven o'clock.
2. Stella has made a moving speech.
3. One wears a top hat at a wedding, sometimes.
4. They consider that the plan is perfect.
5. They all expected the Prime Minister at three o'clock.
6. Nobody reads my poems nowadays. (negative verb)
7. We shall send a letter to John.
8. People think that Shakespeare didn’t exist.
9. The doctor asked Mary a great many questions.
10. The Minister granted me an interview.
11. An old servant looks after the house.
12. You must write down everything I say.
13. Jane won the poetry competition.
14. This bike belongs to my sister.
15. They have put off their wedding for six months.
